Govt agrees to reduce illegally hiked school fees within 15 days

The ministry has expressed its commitment to scrap the licenses of those schools that refuse to roll back the fees hiked in violation of the Education Regulations.

KATHMANDU, April 29: A meeting between the agitating student unions and the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Friday has agreed to reduce within 15 days the fees illegally increased by the private schools. Signing a four-point agreement, the ministry has expressed its commitment to scrap the licenses of those schools that refuse to roll back the fees hiked in violation of the Education Regulations.

The Education Regulation 2069 have a provision that private schools can hike the fees only after the District Education Office approves the increment following the consent of the guardians. Apart from this, the Supreme Court had ordered the schools to increase fees only in intervals of three years. However, private schools have been found hiking the fees arbitrarily.

During Friday's meeting, both the student's unions and the ministry have agreed to form a panel for monitoring fee hike and hold talks with the stakeholders. The panel headed by joint-secretary of the MoE will take initiatives for resolving the disputes.

Following the agreement, the student unions have withdrawn their protests for the time being. Education Minister Dhani Ram Paudel, leaders of the student unions aligned to the major political parties, and representatives of the private schools were also present at the meeting.

Various private schools have arbitrarily increased the fees for the new academic session which started April 14. The schools did so without taking permission from the authorities concerned. Following the unilateral and unlawful fee hike, student unions aligned with various political parties had padlocked the accounts and administrative offices of 175 private schools across the country on Thursday.

Out of the total padlocked schools, 75 schools were from the Kathmandu Valley. Reputed schools including Ullens, Rato Bangala, Chandbagh, DAV, Nightingale, VS Niketan, Rupy's International, Little Angels, KMC, KIST, GEMS and Samskriti were padlocked, according to Pushpa Kumar Shahi, vice president of the Nepal Students Union. These schools have been known to hike fees arbitrarily every year, much to the mortification of the guardians.